Dog Pack
by Benjamin Queue
Summary: ODSTs, you know them, you may hate them, but they are our last hope, you will listen to a soldier from the 72nd division 319th squad and hear his tale of what happened on Reach, as Noble team fought to stall the Covenant, ODSTs fought to the death for every last inch of ground that the Covenant took.
1. Chapter 1

**I don't own Halo, the characters that appear in Halo, the books, the games, all are property of Bungie, 343 industries and Microsoft games. Enjoy.**

ODSTs always said the current fight was the hardest, well, so far that was how I was feeling after my drop into the city with the infamous 319th squad of ODSTs known as the dog pack. Our CO, Lieutenant Mark "Wolf" Memphis was the first one to hit the ground, I hit the ground, correction, I hit the side of a mountain and then got lodged in a crevice after being bounced from the main cliff. I pressed the open button and the door flew off. I looked down at the ten foot drop, and then looked at the weapons and picked them up. I heard the radio for the squad come alive, Wolf said, "Dog Pack, sound off."

I said, "Coyote, sounding off."

I heard the other three shock troopers sound off, "Bernard here."

Followed by "Shepherd alive and well"

Then the last guy said, "Rook, my head feels like split wood."

I laughed and jumped down. I held my shotgun at a downward position and walked to the edge of the tree line. Wolf said, "Meet up at the rendezvous point. Coyote, you seem to be within half a click of Rook, wait for Rook to get to you." I clicked the comm in acknowledgment and pulled my helmet off. I looked at my red and charcoal-gray helmet and looked at the pattern that I painted on it. On the lower portion of the face mask, I scratched out a smile with two eyes that looked demented. Our previous guy, the guy Rook replaced put on the back of my helmet, "Boobs make the covenant loose wars." I had the polarization changed from the standard gray to a dark red. Rook walked up and nodded, I pulled my helmet on and trotted to the rendezvous point with Rook.

Rook asked, "When did you join the Hell Jumpers?"

I shrugged and said, "I've been in for about three years, and an extra year for basic in the UNMC, and ODST training."

Rook nodded and we kept up the jog. We got to the rest of the squad and Wolf was sitting with his helmet off. The yellow and red stripes showed how much he gave a damn about being spotted, our sniper, Shepherd had a less easy to find design, he had different shades of gray for his colors along with darker blues. As Rook and I walked into the clearing with the Lieutenant and the rest of the squad, we started to see the phantoms. Wolf grabbed his helmet and said, "Get out of the open, now!" I back pedaled for a few moments keeping the rear guard, and as Bernard ran passed with his light machine gun and rocket launcher for heavier weapons. I ran beside him to the building we were getting to.

I looked up and spotted multiple seraphs, phantom drop ships, and banshee light fighters. I watched as multiple long sword fighters and sparrow hawk gunships streaked into the fight firing their main guns into the covenant ships. Three of the seraphs streaked after the long swords and the hawks were engaging the drop ships and the banshees.

I looked back to where I was going and ran behind the tree line and dropped to a knee with my back to the a tree that the squad was near. As I stopped Wolf placed his hand on his helmet near his ear and activated the long range radio, he said, "This is Dog pack, Scar face, you receiving?"

There was a pause and Scar face replied, "Lieutenant, I found you on the infrared scans, you are five clicks from your objective."

Wolf said, "Copy that Scar face, I was calling saying we found the covenant near our location."

Scar face said, "I understand that Lieutenant, but we are a little busy up here. Dog pack, head to the objective, Scar face out."

Wolf dropped his hand and said, "You heard him, lets move, Coyo, you're up front, Rook, your rear security. Keep it cold boys."

I nodded and crouched holding my shotgun up watching the air and ground for contacts. We continued about one click like that when wolf said, "Double time it, we need to get to that objective and secure all the Intel that the covies can get their hands on."

I started moving quicker to get there. I saw three Brutes on the next path, I held my hand up and said, "Three brutes, twelve o'clock."

Wolf said, "Rook, Coyo, and Bernard, take out the apes so we can get past, quietly."

I nodded and pulled out my knife from under my shoulder pauldron. Rook and Bernard did the same apart from the placement of their knives. We walked at a slow crouch to be silent so the brutes wouldn't know we were coming. I said, "Bernard, you are going right, Rook, you take the one on the left, I got the one in the middle."

I heard one of them growl, and another sniff. I knew what that meant, they had our scent. I said, "Take them out, now." I jumped on the back of the center one and plunged by knife through the gap in his spine at the base of his neck. I saw rook throw his knife into the one he was taking out and Bernard I saw pulling his knife out of the temple of the brute's head. Wolf and Shepard came to us when I pressed the comm sending a short burst of static. We jogged to the objective and saw it was clear, for now, of hostiles.

Wolf keyed the door to open and we entered to destroy the data. I went in first securing the complex. When that was done, Rook and I were on door security. I placed my shotgun across my back and pulled out the DMR and threaded the silencer to the barrel and watched the clearing for hostiles and made sure it was clear. I heard all of the objections from the computer as Wolf ran the command codes to delete all travel data and locations. I looked to the sky and saw brilliant light shows, New Alexandria was still a crown jewel even though there was heavy fighting in the space above her. I looked closer to where we were and saw the civilian transports move civilians to the nearest safe zone.

I vaguely remembered being carried onto one as the planet that was my home was glassed and burned to the ground by the Covenant. I was about eight and at that time I was shocked out of my mind that aliens were coming to kill us all.

I gripped back to reality, to the present which is where I needed to be. Friends that died can't save the living once they die. I caught a glimpse of a Brute, I sighted it and fired two rounds in quick succession to the skull, turning it into fragments. I heard the startled screams of grunts as their commander perished. I switched to the squad comm channel and said, "Wolf, we have incoming covies, how copy?"

Wolf sighed and said, "I read you, hold them off, we only need thirty more seconds and we will blow this place."

I pressed my chin to the button to send a burst of static for acknowledgment. And sighted the next target. Rook was watching them, hoping for one to get into his effective range with the assault rifle. I fired a round into one of the grunts and its head turned to fragments, Rook switched to his pistol and fired at the grunts. Within seconds they were all killed. I reloaded my rifle placing my near spent clip in an ammunition pouch. Rook slid a fresh clip into his pistol and placed it back in the magnetic holster. I clicked the squad comm and said, "All clear sir."

Wolf said, "Good, we're clear, and now we have to get to the power facility and hitch a ride to the next objective." I nodded and he said, "Bernard, you and Coyo are up in the lead. Shepard, you have the rear." Bernard moved out the door, I rolled out behind him and looked up again, watching the magnificent display of blues, reds, purples, oranges and yellows from the space battle. Wolf said, "Coyote, get your ass planted on the ground, not in space, we are not here to fight covenant space craft, we are hear to make sure we kill them once they touch their feet to the ground."

I dropped my head level and said, "Yes sir." I continued to follow Bernard, we ran straight into a Covenant patrol and Bernard unknowingly tackled the Brute to the ground, I fired two rounds through its screaming face. The Grunts squealed with their high pitched screams and the Jackals clicks and snarls of surprise of seeing us were heard. We lit up the rest of the patrol with the mix of fire from our arsenal. I picked Bernard up from the Brute, and we took off again.

We made it the three clicks to the command tower of the facility and attempted to enter. The marine standing guard pointed his rifle at us as we emerged, he lowered the rifle as soon as he noticed the helmet design. Wolf said to the marine, "We need to get in the tower." the marine nodded and moved out of our way. We placed our rifles on our backs and jumped on the open elevator. Wolf opened his thigh pouch and pulled out the card to work the elevators. He pressed it into the slot and it shot us up to the landing pad for movement to our next target.

As we got out of the elevator I saw the Falcon and Wolf yelled, "Shepherd, Bernard, on the guns, everyone else, move your asses to the seats. As we trotted to the gunship, the props began turning and the thrust vectoring of the craft moved to test if it was prepared for lift off. I was the first one to the bird, and pressed my back to it watching the air and our six as the rest of the team got in the bird.

I sat on the seat beside Bernard and took my helmet off feeling the sweat from the exercise. Wolf said, "We'll have worse than that by the days end Coyote." I nodded and felt the weight of the bird shift as she lifted off the platform. Rook took off his helmet, and almost dropped it out of the bird. I laughed and Wolf said, "That would have came out of your pay check."

Wolf said, "We got some Intel that SPARTANS found out where the Covenant are hiding their little army. We are dropping in with the rest of the seventy second and helping take out key fueling stations for their craft, also, we will be running the attack on their main force. Lets show them why we are famous boys." The ride was quiet after that, we landed at an outpost that the ODSTs procured to get ready for their city excursion. When the Falcon dropped down the team and I started to get off, the pilot powered down the bird and came out.

I followed Wolf and the rest of the team to the armory where we loaded up on bullets and grenades. I clipped my helmet to my thigh while we were in the armory. I looked at Rook and watched him eyeball the Grendel Galilean. I placed my hand on his shoulder and said, "Not your forte."

He smiled and said, "The big guns are never my specialty." I laughed quietly and watched place one of the LifeScan scanners on his assault rifle. I grabbed a CQB scope and placed it on my shotgun, as I was adjusting it, Shepherd walked over and watched me.

He said, "That is different, a scope on a close quarters weapon." I nodded and finished tuning.

I looked at him and said, "Well, the shotgun has a bad rap for being close range, yet I have found it extremely useful at intermediate ranges." He nodded and sat on one of the crates tuning his sniper rifle. I placed the shotgun on the back holster and checked my pistol, still one hundred percent.

Wolf said, "Get everything packed, you have thirty seconds." I walked to him and he shot a glance at me and said, "ODSTs for a infantry job, this isn't making any sense. We're going to loose some shock troopers."

I nodded and said, "Most of the infantry divisions are en-route to fight toe covenant army, so, we are their only other available resource. We will have back up from some armor while we're down there, so we should be fine, right lieutenant?"

He shook his head, took off his helmet and said, "All we have are the guys we are going in with, the rest is a couple of hogs."

I was almost speechless, and I asked, "How the hell are we going to kill those fuel depots without support?" He shook his head and looked off at the rest of the company that was in the armory.

He walked to the rest of the squad and said, "Lets get to the pelican." Bernard pushed himself off the wall, and Shepherd pulled his bucket on. Rook walked with Bernard to the Pelican.

Shepherd walked up behind me and asked, "Is your little lady off Reach yet?"

I shrugged and said, "I haven't been able to talk to her, been on mission for the last week or so. How's your wife and son?"

He said, " Last time I spoke to them, they were doing well. My son is mad at me because he can't see me very often." I smiled at him and he continued, "My wife is having a hard time adjusting to military life." I nodded and he said, "In my minds eye, they are alive, well, and not getting attacked by the Covenant."

I said, "My fiance and daughter are living in New Alexandria and I hope they can get out as quick as possible."

Shepherd nodded and stepped onto the Pelican. I stepped onto the Pelican and strapped in to the seats near my squad. Wolf sat on his helmet in front of us and said, "We're jumping in with 212th squad and 134th squad for attacking our designated target."

I was thinking of my fiance now that Shepherd asked me about her, I was hoping that she was off planet and with our daughter.

I looked out the troop bay and saw the other squads loading on and placing the equipment on the racks over their heads. I had my satchel loaded with extra ammunition, explosives, med-kits, and water. I pulled my helmet from its clip and placed it on my lap. I felt the Pelican lift up and lean forward. I looked out the back and saw the warthog hanging from the clips on the rear of the fuselage.

The wait was almost too much to bear, we heard the low thuds of light plasma hitting the Pelican. I pulled out the DMR and pulled my helmet on and polarized the visor. Other than the clicks from armor plates hitting or the armor hitting the frame of the seats of the troop bay. I heard over the loud speaker, "_You'll be touching hot, thirty seconds._" I did a final check of my weapons and flipped the safety on the DMR.I felt the bird slow and the nose pick up as we started to land. The safety harnesses were thrown up and we all stood waiting for the ramp to touch the ground.

As it did our contingent of ODSTs sprinted out the back I ran out looking for my first target. Rook, Shepherd and Bernard were firing at the covenant immediately in front of us, the other squads were taking out the ones near the Pelican as the Warthog dropped. I jumped behind a rock and peaked out the side and fired rounds into the covie troops. Wolf was yelling at the other squads leaders, I felt the recoil of my rifle hit my arm, making me twitch as the bullets left the barrel spinning for their targets. I saw Rook toss a grenade, and it being shock activated, he tossed it and two seconds after it hit the ground, it exploded sending an Elite and three Grunts through the air. I was glad not to see any brutes, Brutes and Elites in the same fight against humans was a bad combo for us.

Bernard was loading a fresh box into his rifle. Shepard fired rounds into the Elites and Skirmishers that were leading the grunts. As the plasma fire lowered in intensity, we started moving to the nav-point. I loaded a new clip into the DMR and slung it over my back pulling out my shotgun.

I looked back and saw one of the other ODSTs jump into the driver seat, one of his squad mates jump in as well, and Bernard jump on the gun. Wolf said, "Coyo, Rook, you are guarding the hog." I nodded and trotted in front of the hog. I stopped to wait for Rook to get up front where he was supposed to be. Wolf yelled at Rook and Rook took off to the front and tripped over one of the grunt's bodies, his helmet sliding off his head.

I shook my head and he got to his feet grabbing his helmet and pulling it over his head. I looked back and Wolf nodded, time to move. I started walking forward at a brisk pace and heard the warthog's motor lighten in pitch as it started to follow. I looked around making sure that there were no threats around. I heard the unmistakeable hum of a Spirit drop ship, I looked toward the cliff and sure enough there it was. I pointed it out to Bernard so he could take it down. He sighted the Gauss cannon and fired knocking a fist sized hole in the pilot chamber. The thing fell out of the sky like a rock, I said over the squad comm channel, "Good hit Bernard." He looked at me and put his thumb in the air.

I faced forward and continued the pace. I heard the sounds of the fighting going on near-by, explosions, and gunfire. The only upside to the covenant weapons is that they were quiet, I hated them because I could dodge the slower moving plasma fired from the standard weapons. I focused on the road ahead and saw one of the scout towers that the covenant put up, this one looked to be partially broken apart. I pointed it out, and again, Bernard hit the target sending it falling to the ground. When we turned the corner, I noted the distance of the way-point and it was in the double digits.

I pulled my rifle to my shoulder sighting what walked out, I saw one elite, which turned to ten uncloaking spec ops elites. Bernard Rook and I opened fire, Bernard's rounds ripping straight through the shields armor and flesh of the elites. Rook's assault rifle was giving its loud blare of fire, five more ODSTs dropped to their knees after running to the front to help take down the elites. I loaded a fresh batch of shells and pulled the sliding lever back to load a shell into the chamber. I tossed a fragmentation grenade into the group of remaining elites, I watched one kick it back at us and it blow up n the face of one of the ODSTs that were from the 212th squad went down from the blast, and his buddy was hit by some shrapnel. I heard his screams as he held his side, trying to block the blood. I looked back at the elites, only three left, all uncloaked and firing. I saw another ODST go down and Rook reload beside me. I moved forward and Rook was beside me doing the same. One of the elites rushed me and I put him down with a eight gauge round to the upper torso.

The other ODSTs who weren't tending to the wounded followed me and kept up the fire. The last tow elites dropped and we made sure they were dead by firing a round into each of their skulls.

We placed the two dead Helljumpers in the truck in front of the gun. I looked at Rook and he nodded his head once. We started walking to the fuel canisters and I pulled off my satchel and grabbed a half pound of c7 plastic explosive. I planted it on one cluster of them, Rook and several others did the same. Bernard was scanning for targets, and so far it was all clear. I programmed the detonator to go off on the same frequency as the rest of the charges. As the last charges were placed, Wolf held up a detonator to blow the charges and we moved out of the blast zone. As soon as that happened, Wolf squeezed the detonator and the charges went off. I felt the vibration of the explosions in my boots.

We had to sit and wait for the next objective, and most of the Hell jumpers don't care for waiting. I sat with my back against the rear passenger side tire, Shepherd knelled in front of the warthog and Wolf paced around waiting for the call. I watched him touch his hand to his helmet and nod a few times and he dropped his hand and said, "Gather round boys and girls." I pushed myself off the ground and walked to him, followed by the rest of the force. He waited until everyone was around him and said, "ONI wants some of us for an op, and the rest are going to be going to be working with a team of SPARTANs and finding a way to get through to Shield base. 212Th and 134th are going with the SPARTAN team and 319th will be ONI's play toys. Any questions?"

The group was silent and Wolf continued, "Dog pack, we're going by falcon, The rest of you are going by Pelican to the SPARTANs." I pulled off my helmet and felt sweat drip down from my forehead and hair. One of the ODSTs were eyeballing my tattoo that identified me on my cheek. It had a coyote bearing it's teeth.

He said, "Nice ink, what is your call sign?"

I smiled and said, "Coyote."

He nodded and asked, "Does the rest of your squad have tatts like that?"

I shrugged and said, "All but Rook, lieutenant has a wolf howling, Bernard has a St. Bernard, and Shepherd has a German Shepherd eyeballing and stalking forward."

He nodded and walked off. I walked to the rest of the squad and Rook was screwing around with his assault rifle. Bernard was sitting down and eating an apple. I looked at him and said, "You should find one of the covenant weapons and shoot the apple to have a roasted apple." He smiled with half the apple in his mouth and pulled part of it out and bit down and began to chew again.

He said, "I'd have a burnt ass apple, not a roasted apple you dumb shit." I smiled and he chucked the rest of the apple at me. I stepped out of it's flight path and Wolf shook his head. I heard the Falcon and the Pelican that were our pick ups. Bernard stood up and pulled his rifle off his back, and held it over his chest. Wolf pulled off his helmet and walked to the Falcon. Rook jumped on the machine gun and Bernard jumped on the other, Shepherd stepped in and sat on the side Rook was on, I sat on the side of Bernard and the bird lifted up. Bernard pulled his helmet on and Shepard clipped his rifle to the hand hold. I brushed off some of the soot from near misses from the plasma rounds and looked at the rest of my suit and saw that my right pauldron was hit almost directly boiling away portions of the armor.

I checked my grenades and counted three frags. Wolf pulled his helmet on and I did the same, we heard the ONI operator start by saying, "Lieutenant Memphis, we need you and your team space side on-board the destroyer _Excalibur_ you will have three hours of rest, then you will be briefed and fitted for a mission."

Wolf said, "Copy that."

The Falcon landed at a space port and we transferred to a Pelican. We strapped in and flew to the destroyer _Excalibur._


	2. Chapter 2

**I don't own Halo, any of it, minus the characters from my head, I have no rights to Halo, or any copyrights. Enjoy the reading, sorry it is shorter. Please review.**

I sighed and closed my eyes, what felt like the time it takes my eyes to be blinking, I heard Bernard slide off his cot landing on his feet, and Shepherd on the ground getting suited up. Rook was pulling his helmet on and Wolf was holding his under his arm. I sat up and gathered my armor pieces and fitted them together placing them in the correct places. I picked up my helmet and Wolf said, "The Captain and some ONI spooks want us on the observation deck."

I nodded and we filed out of the room one behind the other, the only weapons we had were the only ones they allowed us to carry on the ship, our pistols, and combat knives. Some of the navy boys and marines stared at us as we walked by them in full combat armor and the trademark ODST helmets. We arrived at the observation deck and walked in, immediate greeted by five fully armed and armored SPARTANs. Rook looked a little freaked out, and Wolf bristled in his suit. The ONI spook yelled at the SPARTANs and the SPARTANs reacted as robots, following the orders to the dot with mechanical precision.

The ONI spook looked at us and said, "I'm sure your wondering why there are SPARTANs out here while there is fighting on Reach. Well, you're going to help them in taking a covenant ship. It sounds impossible for ten men to do it, but all ten of you have proven yourselves in combat for the past several years." I glanced over at the SPARTANs, one of them were staring directly at our group. I turned my eyes back to the ONI spook and he continued, "There was a super carrier spotted in orbit of Reach, Noble team is taking that out, we want you and your team to be ready to board what ever reaction force that they bring."

Wolf nodded and asked, "What if Noble fails?"

The ONI spook said, "That is where you come in, if they fail, you go in and pick up where they left off." Wolf nodded and the Ship captain walked up.

He said, "We will drop your strike team on the closest covenant cruiser we can find, the SPARTANs have a HAVOC nuclear warhead in their arsenal to break down the biggest ship we can find, we have estimated the landing area for the covenant fleet. We will be waiting there for the UNSC fleet, as they engage, we will drop you on a covenant ship. No matter what, keep the SPARTANs from being compromised."

Wolf nodded and said, "You can count on the Dog pack sir." The captain waved us off and we saluted him and fell out to the armory to load up. The SPARTANs not too far behind us.

Bernard mumbled, "Why are the SPARTANs always needing babysitting?"

I shrugged and Wolf pointed to him and said, "Bernard, lock it up, if you have a problem with the SPARTANs, you WILL not show it." Bernard lifted up his hands in a surrendering gesture.

I looked back and saw rook trying to talk to the SPARTANs, it looked like he was actually carrying conversation. One took off their helmet and reviled a ghostly white complexion and brown hair. He was smiling at Rook, and two of the other SPARTANs took off their helmets, reviled similar complexions. Rook took off his helmet laughing and one of the SPARTANs punched him in the arm, still smiling, Rook sidestepped twice from the force of the blow. Shepherd said, "Little shit, Coyo, what the hell is this kid doing? He is going to get killed by them."

I said, "I doubt it, he is like a squirrel, funny and hyper." Wolf nodded and we stepped into the Armory. I immediately saw rows and rows of rifles and shotguns and SMGs and pistols. I grabbed a shotgun and a SMG. Wolf grabbed a battle rifle and a carbine rifle. Shepherd grabbed a DMR and battle rifle, Bernard grabbed a variant of the LMG that he was accustomed to using. Rook grabbed an assault rifle and an SMG. The SPARTANs grabbed various different weapons, and they all seemed to tell their specialties by the weapons they were using.

When we walked out, we certainly caught stares. We went to the firing range and tested the weapons. Wolf sat on a box and asked names of the SPARTANs, they said one by one, William, Steven, John, Tyler, and Jessie. He tapped the tac-pad and said, "First up on lane one, Rook. Weapon... Assault rifle. Lane two, Tyler, weapon... Battle rifle. Lane three, William, weapon... pistol. Lane four, Coyote, weapon... SMG." I walked to the fourth lane. SMG at my hip, and Wolf said, "I know this is old news, but you have three magazines, point is to have each round hit the target circles. You have thirty five seconds. Shooters at the ready." I pulled the SMG up and flipped it to from safe to semi. Wolf said, "Start."

The SPARTANs were the first ones to start firing. I aimed and pulled the trigger compensating for the recoil and emptying my clip, pulling another out, I placed it in as the first magazine ejected. Almost half the volume was gone, I fired the clip into the target circle and pulled another clip up, and fired one round, letting the last round chamber, ejecting the magazine and slid the last magazine in the gun and emptied it on the target. I stepped back releasing the magazine, and Rook was finishing his last few rounds. When Rook released his last magazine and stepped back, the targets came forward. And had black marks where the bullets hit. I looked at mine, three rounds were outside of the red circles, two were on the circle. Rook missed a few more rounds, and the SPARTANs were dead on, only one bullet close to being out side the circle. Wolf called out the next shooters and their weapons. He was one of them, the shooters walked up to the line and I said, "Shooters, at the ready." They pulled their weapons up readying them. I said, "Start."

All I was able to hear was the blare of weapon fire, it lowered as one was reloading, then picked back up as they started firing. Shepherd was the last to finish, using his DMR with irons was out of practice for the whole team. Shepherd stepped back and released the magazine from his rifle. The targets came up, and almost the same results, Shepherd had one bullet on the red ring, and the rest were in the ring. Wolf had his mostly in the red ring, four rounds were outside the mark

Bernard walked up and held up the assault rifle. Wolf said, "At the ready." Bernard flipped the selector to burst, and waited. Wolf said, "Start." the fire began and he kept the rounds right around the ring, he emptied his magazine and pulled up a new one. Released the magazine pushed the fresh one in and pulled back on the charging handle. He fired the rifle at the second ring and emptied his magazine, pulling out the magazine as the lat round was in the chamber and pulled up his last magazine and began firing at the third magazine at the last target.

When the last of his bullets left the rifle he stepped back and let the magazine drop. The target came forward and we saw the effectiveness of his shots, almost an entire magazine worth of bullets missed the circles. We walked to the cargo deck and prepped for the fight. Wolf and I were practicing knife fighting with shock sticks and one of the SPARTANs were watching us do that, probably thinking we were slow and all that jazz, I tapped Wolf on the Hamstring and his leg slipped forward sending him to the ground. I made a jab at his torso, and he crawled back sliding away. He jumped back up and lunged at me, I used my shoulder and knife to block him and my foot to topple him over. I adjusted the knife as I fell over top of him, and hit him in the abdomen with the shock stick.

The SPARTAN stood up and said, "Nice job, but it was slow, as you both know, during a war there would be fighting all around you." I shrugged and helped Wolf up.

I walked over to a crate and sat down with my helmet beside me. Shepherd walked over and set his rifle down propping it against the crate, and propped himself against the wall. I was thinking, thinking about what the hell was going on, Wondering, where my family was, how I was going to kick the life out of every Covenant that decided to pop its head into my sight.

Bernard walked over and bumped into me as a reassuring gesture. Shepherd said, "Coyo, just calm down, you will get to see them again." I nodded, and ran my fingers through my buzzed hair, feeling the stubs of hair being pushed into my scalp as my fingers pressed down on them.

I said, "I know I'll be able to see them again, I just want to make sure that they will never be able to be touched by the Covenant bastards. I want them to be safe, and never have to worry if they will get hurt or not, and I don't want to go out every damn day and have to save the species by killing every alien bastard that is near me."

Bernard said, "Then you shouldn't have joined the ODSTs, you would have been able to stay in relative safety being in the Marines."

I shrugged and said, "Who else could be Coyote though? I mean I'm a loveable piece of work and I get the job done. Who else can do that? Rook is a joker, not quite what I am getting at."

Shepherd said, "We'd miss you if you left Coyo, Just do us a favor and don't get killed."

I nodded and we heard the alarms and heard a technician's voice over the intercom saying, "_Battle stations, incoming Covenant fleet, ten cruisers and counting." _

Wolf yelled, "That's our call boys, get in the drop pods." I ran to the drop pod that had my information on it, I closed the door and saw all my lights flash, Wolf's face appeared on the screen and he said, "The ONI tech said we are going to be shot out in thirty seconds. If we miss we will be hitting a Covenant ship, if not, we will be hitting the ground."

I asked, "Sir, I thought we were supposed to hit one of the Covenant ships."

Wolf said, "We couldn't touch their hull through the shields, we would be vaporized, they are sending a drop force to the surface, we will be ripping it apart, Shepherd, don't worry, we'll pick you up a sniper rifle when we can. SPARTANs, you have been redirected-"

One of the SPARTANs said, "We know, good luck lieutenant. Godspeed boys." I felt the yank from the pod being jettisoned. I counted down the time it would take us to hit the ground, it always hurt, but there haven't been many casualties from the pod malfunctioning.

I forced my self not to think of that, Wolf said, "Coyo, stop freaking out, we'll need you fully on task for this, listen up, we are dropping, and going to land almost on top of a Covenant attack. There is an Army contingent on the ground holding them off, we are going down there to help them out. Most of this will be close to mid range fighting, don't let them surround you, Bernard, stick with Rook, he is going to provide you with assistance. Coyo, you stick with Shepherd, I'll be on the middle approach."

I said, "Got it sir." I re calibrated my visor and counted down till I felt the pull from the drag chute opening and slowing my fall. I felt the crack of the pod hitting the ground. I heard the other pods hit.

Wolf yelled, "Give 'em hell boys."

I slammed the door opening button, and shot the door off the hinges. I jumped out of the pod and pulled out my SMG. I fired at the first target I spotted, an Elite. Its shields took most of the rounds, it ran at me and dropped from a head shot given by Shepherd. I fired the remainder of my clip into the grunts and Jackals that were with the elite. I moved to Shepherd, barely hearing anything over the blare of rifle fire, and the booms of grenades. I ducked down as I got to Shepherd and he said, "Bout time you got here, I thought that you wanted me to take them out by my self."

I smiled behind my visor and continued the copper and lead storm that we were creating. Shepherd yelled, "HUNTERS!" Bernard displaced to get into firing line with them, Shepherd said, "Coyo, they're going to chew us up out here- MOVE RIGHT, MOVE RIGHT!" I dove to the right, and felt the heat and heard the explosion of the plasma cannon where I was standing not two seconds ago, I fired my magazine into them and reloaded, I saw some of my rounds pinging off their unbreakable armor. One of the hunters fell, the other berserk-ed and charged after us. The army boys came up behind us and pinned it to the ground with overwhelming fire from their rifles. After it fell, we wiped up the rest of the Covenant force.

An army Major walked up to us and said, "You guys are a good help, you may want to move and help evacuation efforts in the city."

Wolf nodded and said, "We will sir. Could we by chance liberate two Warthogs from your vehicle depot?"

The Major nodded and said, "Go ahead, I'll clear it with the tech guys." We trotted to the garage and picked up two warthogs, both the standard vehicle.

I jumped shotgun with Shepherd driving. The rest of the team jumped into the first warthog and we started rolling, I pulled out my shotgun and Shepherd said, "Watch for us, we don't have someone on the gun." I nodded and put my foot on the dash propping myself up to fire over the wind shield. Shepherd was an excellent driver, we meet almost no signs of life until we got into the city, we were greeted by thousands of Covenant. We drove through, weapons blaring letting loose deadly projectiles. Bernard dropped a explosive charge and looked back being sure we were clear and detonated it sending dozens of Covenant soldiers sky high. I continued to fire shells into the Covenant, depleting shells quickly. We rolled through the Covenant with little actual damage taken, our vehicles were getting damaged, and Bernard took a bolt of plasma indirectly to the helmet.

We saw long swords streak by taking out Seraphs and other Covenant vehicles. The Covenant started to thin and we started to see rifle tracers coming toward us. We drove through the fighting Covenant and stopped in front of the blockade. Shepherd and I jumped out and climbed the blockade wall and covered for the rest of the team. Rook was holding back slightly laying down cover fire for the team. I saw the two hogs go up, both sending shrapnel everywhere, Rook fell over from the blast and picked himself back up.

I yelled, "BRUTE TEAM, ON OUT SIX, ROOK MOVE!" We turned and fired at the advancing Brutes. Rook unleashed his magazine into his pursuers the rest of us fired into them as well, one of them continued forward bounding at him with a hammer about the same size as the beast it's self. Rook threw in a fresh magazine, Wolf and I threw in grenades knocking it off balance and finally, killing it a meager three meters in front of Rook.

Rook triple timed it up the blockade and we moved to the nearest command center.


	3. Chapter 3

**I don't own Halo, or anything minus the Characters who are my intilectual property. Enjoy, and please review how good or bad my tale is**

As Wolf was talking to the commanding officer for the Army operations in the area, I sat outside and made sure no one was getting in the place. It felt like hours, hearing the sounds of firefights and screams of wounded being pulled back.

Wolf walked out, helmet in his hands, nodded his head toward me. I stood up, and we walked to the rest of the team. He sat on his helmet and pulled out a holographic map, he said, "We are here," a red light flashed, and he continued, "We need to get to the triple A guns on the east side of the bay, we are supposed to fight off a small force that landed on the island." A green light came on and flashed near the other side of the city. He continued, "We are looking at a thirty mile hike, or ride, I thought it would be better to have a ride up there. We are getting two falcons, Bernard, you're with me, Rook, Shepherd your with Coyote.

"There are Marines already on the island, but the Elites are wanting that area badly. They have sent Hunters, and other immensity powerful covenant troops. Coyote, you are taking Shepherd and Rook to clear out the computer tracking system to the guns. Bernard, you and I are going to be running the kill zone helping the Marines take back the island. Shepard, the person in charge of this outpost said you can swap out for a sniper rifle. The rest of you can do the same, but we leave in ten."

Shepherd stood up from the discarded satchel and walked toward the armory. Rook and I stood up and followed Shepard to the armory. Once inside they swapped out the weapons they didn't want for other weapons. I refilled my ammunition and topped up on my grenades. Bernard walked in, dropping his SMG for a rocket launcher. I stood off to the side waiting for Shepard to be finished loading the huge shells into the magazines. Shepherd stood up, holding the rifle, and checked the bolt, making sure it worked perfectly.

I walked over to Rook, and tapped on his shoulder and said, "Three minutes. Get ready to jump on the bird." Rook nodded, and trotted out of the armory. Shepherd loaded a magazine into the rifle and pulled the bolt back loading a round into the chamber.

Shepard said, "Ready to move." Coyote nodded, and they walked silently to the Falcon.

As they stepped in, Wolf said, "See you boys in hell. Remember, feet first into hell."

I looked Over from the seat I was in at Rook and Shepherd, both with their visors polarized, and silent as stone, I deactivated my polarity, and they did the same, I said, "You know how we're going to run this, right?"

Shepherd said, "The usual, I hang back and pick off enemies. You and Bull- I mean Rook go forward kicking up dust and securing the objective, I come to you, and we hold them until we are relieved."

Rook asked, "Bull?"

I said, "Bull Dog, your predecessor. One of the best guys I'll ever know. He died on a op like this, ripped apart by an elite Zealot team, fighting until they ripped off his head."

Rook said, "Oh, sorry man."

I said, "It's fine, we've lost a lot of good people in this war. He won't be the last, We just miss him. We were all in the team when it formed, he was the only one to go to where ever the hell after death."

I looked out the side, and saw the bay, it looked relatively calm, the sky was buzzing. Fighters, and transports of all types were moving through the air, one was cut in half by a corvette Wolf said in the other falcon, "Is it just me, or are they already ripping apart the civilian transports?"

I said, "No, I saw it too." the guys polarized their visors, and I did the same.

The pilot said, "_Thirty seconds."_

We checked our weapons, I pulled my SMG over my chest and watched the outside as it fleeted by around fifty meters per second, gradually dropping. I looked over at the gunners and then back at the guys who were almost ready to drop out. I said, "Ten seconds and we're out."

Rook said, "Good, I want to kill something."

The bird touched the grass, and we jumped out the sides hitting the ground. I brought the barrel up to bear and made sure the area was clear, it was. We moved toward the Navigation point I was on point. Shepherd held back a little bit, Rook was holding right. I saw a nice size tree, and asked, "Shepard, what would you say if I could get you a birds eye view?"

Shepard said, "I'd kill everyone you ever disliked."

I pointed to the tree and he nodded, I placed a hand down for him to step on and gave him a boost for climbing. He got to a good perch and Rook and I moved forward to the beacon that was placed as a way point.

Shepherd said, "You're clear for now, I can't spot any threat to you. Looks like a three elites in the building though, be careful."

I said, "I'm going to be back at home with my girls one day, so I have to be reckless."

Rook said, "Fair enough. Lets go and kill them all."

We started to trot to the building. I switched to my shotgun as we got out side the door, Rook moved in first, I was right behind him, both of us moving slow and quiet. Neither one of us moving quick enough to be picked up on a motion sensor. I saw the glint of one of the Elites armor, I passed the door way, and pulled out my knife silently and moved forward on the Elite, checking beside me for the other Elites.

I saw it was clear, and crept forward still. When I was within half a meter, I took the knife through the back of his neck and grabbed the mouth before he could make a noise and lowered his body to the floor.

I got back with Rook who was finishing up with the second Elite. I was thinking, that is the second, so where is the third. Immediately I was answered by a roar, I turned around and saw an Elite general right behind me. I brought my shotgun to bear, but it grabbed the barrel and yanked it out of my hands, throwing it to the wall, pressing his foot on my chest, pressing me to the ground and pulled out a plasma dagger. Rook started to shoot it. The Elite smacked him away sending him into a wall, knocking him out.

I tried to push it's foot off, but it made a sound like a chuckle. I pulled out my knife and stabbed it in the knee area. It bellowed and lifted it's leg from me. I took the chance to pull out my pistol and empty the clip into it. The Elite attempted to stomp on me, blood flowing from thirteen locations.

I rolled, and it growled and roared. I pulled a fresh clip into the pistol and fired more rounds into the head and neck of the Elite. Finally the son of a bitch fell to the ground, breath gurgling from blood. I pulled my knife out of it's knee and said, "I'm going to see my family again. No matter what the hell your civilization throws at me, I will see my family safe and without a scratch." I plunged my knife into his throat.

I walked over to Rook as I put the knife in it's sheath. I pulled off his helmet and saw that there was no blood, but he was out cold. I keyed the radio for Shepherd to come on over. I left Rook in the room, knowing he would be okay. I picked up my shotgun, and cleared the rest of the building, there was nothing. I found the computer for the triple A guns, or part of it. When Rook came too, we had to move again, to the main complex. This was one of the larger housing complexes, I lead the trot to the complex. We got in the building quietly and slowly, not disturbing any motion sensors.

We saw several Elites, most were minors. One was a major, I pulled out the SMG and Rook threaded the silencer to his assault rifle. Shepard was outside the building waiting for the sign to go loud. I rolled in two frags covering the room in fragments, and the Elites were dead, and more were on their way, Rook and I moved down the stairs hearing grunts and hollers from the Elites.

I switched the safety off the SMG and looked down the sights watching for what ever wanted to bring it's self to my reaper. I heard more rounds going off from Shepherd's rifle. Rook and I slipped in the room, and took out two of the minors. We fired off rounds and three of them came at us firing plasma weapons. Rook was reloading when one came almost on top of him. I switched my shotgun over quickly and fired a round into it's face making a fountain of blueish colored blood.

We killed the rest of the Elites and set up the computer as Shepherd got in the building setting up his nest for support on the troops down fighting on the beach. He opened his satchel and pulled out magazines with different colored tape in the outside, I remembered red was anti-armor, blue was anti-air, and green was incendiary anti-personnel.

He set up the bi-pod, and got in a chair to sit in. He loaded a red taped magazine first, I looked down at the beach through binoculars and saw a wraith battle tank. He fired and hit the tank in the rear power plant, turning it into shrapnel. I spotted Wolf and Bernard. I found a sniper rifle in a locker with several magazines. I picked it up, felling its weight. I set it in an adjacent window, and started to provide support to Wolf and Bernard. I fired a round through an Elite's head sending it to the ground.

Rook looked through the binoculars down at the battle calling out targets for Shepherd, I was providing light support to the infantry by taking out the Elites and the light vehicles. Shepherd fired at one of the Elites I was sighting, and the Elite's head burst into flame. I fired a round into the other Elite, dropping it.

I emptied the last magazine into other Elites, I watched through the scope to figure out what was happening to the rest of the team. I saw Wolf and Bernard, Wolf reloading a magazine, and Bernard laying down heavy fire. I switched my helmet radio to their frequency and heard them talking to each other.

"_On your two, jackal team on your two._" Wolf said to Bernard, before Wolf finished the sentence, Bernard was turning to face the threat. He moved up holding the light machine gun aiming it to be ready for anything. I saw five Elites rush through the Marines, knocking them off balance as they did. Shepherd's rifle took out two.

Bernard yelled, "Come on you sons a' bitches!" He pulled out the rocket launcher and fired two rockets at the Elites. They barley managed to dodge the rounds. When one got in swinging range, he swung his Rocket launcher at it, knocking it to the ground. Wolf fired round after round into it from the Assault rifle, barely doing anything to it's shields. Shepherd's rifle killed that one. Another one sprinted around Bernard knocking him to the ground. Shepherd's rifle put and end to that struggle. The last was standing on his head. I heard Bernard's screams over the radio and then heard a snap from the helmet giving way to the pressure of the foot.

Shepard said, "No, no, not here, not now." Shepherd's round went through the Elites shield and bounced off the armor. Wolf fired his whole magazine into the Elite. The Elite dropped, but we lost one of our guys.

The big man, who never complained about an assignment, and now dead from a crushed skull. I heard Wolf say, "_Damn it, Bernard down_." I pulled my helmet off, and dropped it to the ground, wondering if this was all just some sick dream, and if I would ever wake up from it.

About thirty seconds later, I gathered my self and picked up my helmet I pulled it over my head. I said, "Rook, we're going down there."

Shepherd said, "But, Wolf said that we needed to stay here."

I looked at him and said, "He is down there in a firefight without a team mate." Shepherd nodded and picked up his rifle.

"I'm coming with you, we should all stick together." I nodded and we headed to the bottom of the complex going down to fight for our team. As we exited the building we immediately found the Covenant fighting our soldiers. Shepherd knelled and fired rounds into their skulls.

I said, "Rook, stay here with Shepherd, I'll get to Wolf."

He nodded, and I sprinted across the beach. I jumped and landed in a crater before a plasma cannon round exploded on me. I looked over and saw a Marine jump into the carter.

He looked at me and I could tell he was gathering courage from the sight of an ODST in the fight. I got from my back to my knee and fired my SMG into some of the advancing grunts and Jackals. I pressed my comm and said, "Wolf, you still with us?"

Wolf said, "Yeah, we got one of the guns up, the second and third are about a hundred meters from each other about half a kilometer down the beach."

I said, "Okay, I'm about in the front of the fighting, where are you?"

He said, "Thirty meters behind and ten degrees east."

I knelt again unleashing a volley of rounds into an Elite that got too close." I looked up and saw a covenant corvette limp away from the city, not a kilometer above us and in the middle of the harbor. I heard a thump from Wolf hitting the crater and loaded a fresh magazine into my SMG. He pulled out his SMG, and I pulled out my shotgun. He nodded, and we exploded down the beach killing anything that came in our way. I chucked a grenade into a cluster of Grunts and Jackals, the explosion sent them flying.

Shepherd said, "Displacing, you'll be with out sniper support for a few moments."

Wolf said, "We'll get you a distraction." as he said it, ten Marines dropped to their knees holding rocket launchers and fired them into the Covenant forces. We kept pressing forward, moving through the lines of the Covenant smashing them back to get to the guns. Firing along the way, for an unknown amount of time. I was running low on shotgun shells by the time that we were activating the Battery. Almost immediately it started targeting Covenant Seraphs and Banshees, I put my shotgun over my back and took out my SMG, sending hundreds of bullets into the Covenant. The Marines were sending thousands of rounds from their assault rifles, and other various weapons.

Of the company of marines that were helping us take the beach with, about half were dead or wounded. I was getting dangeriously low on ammo, I continued to fight the Covenant, we were within thirty meters of the Battery, yet may as well been across the continent for how much the covenant were fighting to stay alive. I fired my last clip of the SMG and started to fire my pistol, dropping the SMG on the ground. Firing the silenced weapon in full out combat was more than exhilerating. Reloading after twelve rounds was the backfire to it.

I took my knife out and started going for kills with both. Wolf said, "We won't make it over there pistols and knives, we need a plan."

I said, "Get the marines to fire at the Covenant grouping, I'll make a break for it."

Wolf said, "There are auto turrets near the gun, once you get the gun operating, press the operating key, they will come on and fire at the covies. Get behind them when you activate them. _MARINES! _One of our guys needs cover, lets show these blasphemous bastards why they should cower when they hear our battle cry!"

There was a massive yell from the marines, and an eruption of bullets. I sprinted into the aliens firing my pistol when one was looking directly at me. I hit the gun with my shoulder, and pressed the activation key. It came to life swiveling to a target, I dived to a auto turret and pressed the activation key on it, the top lifting and the gun pulling up. 12.7mm rounds started tearing through the dozens of covenant that were left. Once the last Elite fell, and the rest of the covenant were dead, we all moved through to the screaming wounded, and the silent dead. The team meet up around Bernard's body. All of us took our helmets off. We drove his rifle into the dirt, took out the magazine, took out a fold of the ODST flag, and draped it over the rifle, the Dog tags we put on after to identify the marker.

Wolf took the attached tag from the chain and put it in a pouch on his uniform. He dropped to a knee and placed his hand on Bernard's mangled corpse. I saw the Pelicans drop in to med-evac for the wounded, and later for the dead. Two marines with a stretcher came to Bernard's body, and loaded it on the stretcher.

We didn't get a replacement for Bernard, because all ODSTs were on fighting duty that were fully trained, the others were on training. The one who finished training were put in new squads.

Wolf pulled his helmet on, and Rook, Shepherd and I did the same. We received a call saying we had another mission to assault a base held by the covenant along with more survivors from the 72nd. A Pelican landed by us when the call closed, and we jumped in. As soon as Rook stepped in, the bird was in the air again. We sat down in the troop bay not bothering to strap in, we were all sitting on the same side, silent, mourning the loss of our brother ODST.

The flight moved by in silence and when we landed, we stepped off and walked to rearm our weapons. I swapped my SMG for a battle rifle and topped up on bullets and grenades. They had a mandatory update for the helmets that we needed to have. I had them add the dye to the visor polarization and got a can of armor paint to get this helmet up to par with the rest of my armor. I also got replacement pieces for my damaged armor. I sat down and painted the pattern onto the armor pieces based off of the older pieces.

Shepherd was sitting on a box in front of me, and Rook was catching up on sleep. Wolf was in briefing with the commander of the division. I finished up the painting, and put the armor in place. Pulling the helmet on lights started going up. I calibrated the helmet to my liking and checked all the functions of the helmet, all useful, all fun.

I took out the holo-pad that we were allowed to talk to family with. I composed a message to my fiancee and daughter. I usually kept a video diary for them about what I have been doing, but for the past eight weeks I was too busy. I took out the tiny video camera and took my helmet off. I turned the camera on and said, "Sorry I haven't done this in a while, we've been swamped for missions lately. We lost Timothy, he died while we were trying to get some heavy defense guns reactivated.

"I haven't spent a day without thinking of you girls, I'll see you soon. I'll be back for good soon. Love you girls. Bye." I pressed the record button on the camera and selected to send it to the tablet embedding it in the message. I sent the message and closed the holo-pad.

I put them up in my satchel, Shepherd said, "Good thing you remembered, it's been a few months since you made one of those." I nodded and clipped up my satchel. I took out my knife and started to scratch out the smile.

About half way through on the detail, Wolf tapped my shoulder, and said, "The Colonel wants to see you." I nodded and stood up putting the knife in the sheath. I walked to the makeshift officers quarters and knocked.

He said, "Enter."

I stepped in with my helmet in my hand and stood at attention in front of his desk. He said, "Take a seat." I sat in the chair and he continued, "Corporal Jacobson for your courage under fire, the UNSC has decided to promote you to sergeant."

I saluted and he gave me the patch for it. He dismissed me and I walked off, going back to my squad. I put the patch in my pocket to put on my uniform later, I got to them and picked up my weapons and satchel. Locking my weapons in place on my back, Rook sat up and the intercom rang saying that we were about to depart.

I noticed two squads of shiny brand spanking new armor. Now, my right pauldron and main chest plate were new, but the whole set of armor on several squads were. Wolf said, "We're taking a lot of casualties, two full squads this week."

I nodded and said, "Yeah, and lets not forget the portions of the squad we loose."

Wolf put his hand on my shoulder, "We'll remember those. We will remember them as long as we live. Then we will regroup in hell to fight another day."

Rook said, "Hell yeah."

Shepherd said, "Bulldog and Bernard are waiting for us, same with everyone else. Feet first?"

Wolf nodded and said, "Feet first."

We stepped in the pelican with another squad, full of rookies. A platoon of battle hardened marines jumped in and they loaded a scorpion MBT in the grapple hook on the back of the Pelican. The rookie squad was eyeballing us, trying to figure what all we went through, I almost laughed. We've been through a hell of a lot in the last year. Not just Reach, but every major battle before that. Always loosing, but always saving lives. These rookies looked at us like Marines looked at SPARTANs, with a almost unnatural love.


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I own nothing Halo, I only own the words here as my own ideas. Please give me your praise or concerns in reviews. Enjoy.**

3 days later

I slammed my back against the wall, firing my SMG blindly to drop some of the heat that we were accumulating, Wolf yelled, "God dammit, Shepherd, knock that bastard down, Coyote, move up the street, Rook, cover him."

I sprinted down the street, sliding to get behind the cover of a car. Rook was spraying rounds from a mounted MG, Shepherd was out of his element, ground fighting in heavy combat. Shepherd fired rounds into the Brutes and Grunts. I popped up and fired several rounds. Wolf hit the car beside my hiding spot, the last two guys from the squad of new ODSTs were firing their assault rifles from behind pillars that were holding up balconies.

Brutes were hitting the ground and dieing, but not quickly, The platoon of Marines were circling around to block them off and create a gauntlet of fire. But until then, we had to hold out and take down as many of them as possible.

I felt one of the spikes from that god forsaken Brute spike rifle ricochet off my ankle plate, and I lost balance. Catching myself with my left arm, I pushed my self back up and reloaded the SMG. I looked over and saw two Brutes charge the two rookies and the rookies fired back, but too late. One grabbed the closest rookie and bit down into his shoulder. The rookie scram and started punching it with the other arm. Not any use, the other kicked the second rookie into the wall, and stabbed a grenade launcher with a blade down the length of it into his torso. I threw a grenade in between them to end their suffering.

I looked at Wolf and said, "We're not going to last too much longer in this fight Wolf, we need to get the hell out of here."

Wolf yelled, "We're killing these fuckers, weather they realize it or not, they will fucking die."

I primed a grenade and tossed it into the group of Covenant troops, killing several, and knocking a few off balance. I heard guns start going off on the other side of the covenant line, guns from the marine platoon.

I watched the marines fire and kill the covenant where they stood. A few of the marines fell, not as many as the covenant though. I reloaded my SMG and pulled out my shotgun, I stood up and fired a few rounds at the Brutes. As the last Jackal died, we meet up with the middle and consolidated the situation. Shepherd walked up, holding his sniper rifle that now had several plasma burns. Rook was working on pulling out one of the spikes from his wrist armor. Wolf nodded for us to move to him, I walked up to him and the marine lieutenant said, "We're running out of water and ammunition, we need to get to the RV point ASAP."

Wolf said, "Yeah, and we need to finish the objective." I checked my shotgun, and saw it had full choke, great idea to keep it where I can blow a hole in a Brute no problem.

The lieutenant asked, "How do we plan that if we are at about half strength and low ammo?"

Wolf said, "You are marines, not army or navy brats, you know how to kill the enemy with low ammunition. You all have bayonets, if worst comes to worst, use them."

The lieutenant nodded, I said, "Sir, we're about three clicks from the objective. About five from the RV point."

Wolf nodded and said, "Lets go, at least we can get to the objective before nightfall. Something tells me nightfall is going to be hell with trying to retake parts of the city or slow the take of Reach."

We started to move down the road to the objective, one of the office buildings within five kilometers of the ONI tower. We moved at a shuffle, a ten click an hour pace to the objective.

I was up front of the group, pulling the point position. As I rounded a corner to the objective, I got plowed over by an ODST running the other way. I said, "Watch where you're go-" I saw the person's shape, clearly female.

Wolf ran up, and asked, "Where is you're squad?"

She said, "Dead sir, sorry about the train wreck."

I stood up and said, "It's fine."

Wolf said, "We're down a person, and you're down a squad, might be a good idea to merge. What's you're name kid?"

She said, "My squad called me Jazz, My name is Jasmine, I was a support sniper for my previous team."

Wolf nodded and said, "Welcome aboard Jazz, mind taking point with the guy you rammed over?"

Jazz shrugged and Wolf trotted back to the rear with Rook. We started the shuffle back up and moved to the objective, I saw a second story window was out, Shepherd did too.

Wolf had us stop to figure out how to get in, I said, "There's a second floor window out, Shepherd and I can get in it and open the building for you."

Wolf nodded and asked, "What if you guys run into Covenant troops?"

I used the pump on the shotgun and he got the message, Wolf said, "Okay, you do that, Marines, make a perimeter."

I jogged to the window that was busted out, and Shepherd moved about thirty feet in front f me, I nodded, and he sprinted toward me, he jumped just before he reached me, landing a foot on my hands, I Launched him further up and into the window. He pulled the rest of his body up and disappeared for a moment, he lowered down a hand, I tossed my shot gun up to him, and he placed it in the building behind him.

He lowered his hand again, and I jumped to reach it, I got it, clasped, and he grabbed my hands with his, and pulled me up. I grabbed my shotgun, and stood up to clear the area. Shepherd switched to his battle rifle and we moved into the building. I turned the corner into the hall and noticed a shadow moving near by, I pointed it out to Shepherd. He nodded, pressing to the wall for concealment in the shadows and I moved forward to it, selecting on the HUD to reduce ambient noise and focus on noises near by.

It took about a second for the process to occur and it matched the sound to known species, it wasn't human, but it wasn't a well known Covenant species either, the giant beetles known to some units as "Buggers". I relayed the information to Shepherd and moved forward, staying off the wall, because of the contrast from white and charcoal gray.

I turned the VISR system on and almost instantly the room was outlined in greens. I moved closer to the corner and peaked around, luckily none of them saw me, I motioned for Shepherd to come up, he moved silently to my position, I pointed toward the far corner that was in firing sight of the buzzing bastards, he lowered to his stomach and moved over there with as little sound as possible, I waited for him to give the go ahead to move.

My grip on the shotgun was beginning to hurt, Shepherd gave me a nod and I turned the corner sending a slug through two of the bugs, the rest took to flight, and hit the ceiling with a buzz and a thud. Shepherd fired rounds into the central nervous system and knocking them down with one round after another.

I fired another shell and it ripped off the casing to the wings on one of the bugs, and making a hole in the thorax of a second ripping it apart. The remaining two were the hopping one and a fully inflight one, Shepherd fired a round into the hopping round, knocking it out of the fight, and then firing at the last remaining one.

It hit, and the round made the bug burst. When he stood up we started to go down to the bottom level of the building. I walked down the stairs from the second floor to the first floor, and saw a covenant jammer being set up, Shepherd pulled out a frag grenade and primed it for five seconds, I did the same, we released our thumbs, and counted to three, tossing them into the area near the jammer. They hit the ground, skittered, and hit again.

The grenade I lobbed was about a meter in the air when it went off, about a third of a second later, the second grenade went off. Once the cloud of white smoke from the two grenades dissipated, we counted the bodies. Among them was a still breathing brute, barely alive, but still alive. I heard his labored breathing, and activated the Covenant translator function from my HUD, being that I didn't have a AI, it took longer for the computer to process the language. I started talking, "You know what we are, don't you"

It laughed, a gargling, and throaty sound, and started growling and grunting, two seconds later, the translator flashed the words on my visor, 'You are humans, lunch.'

I said, "Seems you're wrong, you're the one dieing here." He laughed again, and started the grunting and whooping.

Two seconds after he stopped, the visor flashed showing what he said, 'I may die, but your race is doomed, your people are dieing. Your warriors are loosing. And our ships are smashing your ships.'

I said, "Sorry you feel that way, enjoy your death."

I stood up, walking away when I heard heavy feet hit the floor, I looked back, and saw three Elites, all in Zealot class armor. I raised my shotgun, and one roared, racing for me. I fired three slugs, finally knocking out the shields, and as I was cocking back, he was on me, it kicked, and I flew back, hitting the wall.

Shepherd capitalized on the opportunity and fired a round through it's head. My translator kicked in saying, 'Kill the infidels!'

I got back up slowly, and pulled out the SMG. The other two were watching us intently, while they were doing that I shut down the translator and zoomed in on the leader, who was holding one of the energy swords. I moved forward, and they both started baring their teeth, Shepherd said on the radio, "How are we going to take them out? That last one almost killed you."

I said, "I don't know, but we're going to have to, I'll try to take down their shields, and when I do, kill them with your rifle."

He said, "Will do." He aimed, and I raised my SMG, the Elite Zealot that was holding the sword charged, and the other did as well, lighting his own, I started spraying rounds and stepping back to take out their shields. Shepherd fired some rounds into the mix to take down their shields. I started to reload when the leader slashed at me with the sword, cutting my SMG in half, I dropped it, pulling out my pistol and emptying a clip into his face, finally knocking out the shields. Shepherds round tore through his neck, and the second one started charging him.

I sprinted after it pulling out my knife, as I did, it turned around and roared, activating a wrist blade, I smacked my pistol to my him putting the magazine in place. I jumped, kicking off the Elite's leg, and grabbing it's neck, the shield was still active, so I got no grip. I slipped behind it, landing on my back, and sliding a few feet.

I pulled the slide back on my pistol and said, "Come on you son of a bitch. Fucking kill me."

it heard me, and moved toward me with both blades out. Shepherd fired several rounds into the shield, and I fired my own rounds, the shield turned a bright blue before it was gone, and by that time, both of us had to reload. It growled, and retracted one of the blades, the one from it's wrist.

It said in near perfect English, "Meet your heresy human."

It picked me up by the neck, and gripped hard. I looked over at Shepherd and he was looking for a shot that wouldn't kill me in the process of killing it, I took the knife and stabbed it through the arm of the Elite, and it dropped me, more of a throw than a drop, and Shepherd fired a round through it's head.

I looked at him and nodded, moving toward the door to open it for the rest of the force.


End file.
